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Czech HistoryThe US failed to counter communist threat in post-war Prague, says historian Igor Lukeš in his new book
Immediately after the end of the Second World War, Czechoslovakia became a
testing ground in the contest between democracy and communist one-party
rule. In Prague, the United States was hoping to challenge Stalin’s aim
of including the country within the Soviet empire by supporting Czech and
Slovak democrats in their uneven struggle against the communists. In his
new book entitled On the Edge of Cold War – American Diplomats and Spies
in Post-war Prague, Boston University professor of history Igor Lukeš
explores the US efforts to counter the communist offensive in
Czechoslovakia, and arrives at the conclusion that the half-hearted and
even amateurish attempts by US diplomats in Prague were doomed to fail. More
From the ArchivesStalin and Gottwald: together in life and death
When Joseph Stalin died on March 5 1953, it sent shockwaves round the
world. In Czechoslovakia his personality cult had been almost as
overwhelming as in the Soviet Union itself. At the time of his death, work
was already well under way to build the biggest statue of the Soviet
dictator in the world – unveiled two years later in Letná Park. Stalin
had a close ally and kindred spirit in the Czechoslovak President, Klement
Gottwald, and Gottwald ignored warnings from his doctors in order to attend
his friend and protector’s funeral. Before leading the Czechoslovak
delegation to Moscow, he had a few words for his country’s citizens. More
Czechs in HistoryRudolf Slánský: architect of Communist takeover and purge victim
Czechoslovak top Communist Rudolf Slánský is a tragic figure of 20th
century history in the classical sense of the word. In the end the fate of
the once powerful and self made man was mapped out elsewhere as he became a
victim of the state security system he helped create.
More
From the ArchivesStalin and Gottwald: together in life and death
When Joseph Stalin died on March 5 1953, it sent shockwaves round the
world. In Czechoslovakia his personality cult had been almost as
overwhelming as in the Soviet Union itself. At the time of his death, work
was already well under way to build the biggest statue of the Soviet
dictator in the world – unveiled two years later in Letná Park. Stalin
had a close ally and kindred spirit in the Czechoslovak President, Klement
Gottwald, and Gottwald ignored warnings from his doctors in order to attend
his friend and protector’s funeral. Before leading the Czechoslovak
delegation to Moscow, he had a few words for his country’s citizens.
More
Current AffairsStalin survives village poll
The inhabitants of Studenec, a small Moravian village near Brno, have voted
to keep a bronze relief depicting Soviet dictator Josef Stalin on their
community’s monument to the victims of the First and Second World Wars.
Just over a half of the village’s adult inhabitants turned up to cast
their ballots in the local referendum, while a majority of them said they
wanted to keep the controversial portrait in its place.
More
MagazineMagazine
Czech students try their hand at the Spaghetti Bridge Contest. A chess
master plays ten games simultaneously - blindfolded! And, why would anyone
want to store Stalin's head in a factory? Find out more in Magazine with
Daniela Lazarova.
More
